P1.2-M abandoned fake seasoning shipment surrendered in Bacolod
BACOLOD CITY - A total of 125 sacks of counterfeit seasoning worth P1.2 million that were abandoned in a courier firm were surrendered to authorities in Barangay 26 here on Friday, August 14.
Police Major Christopher Dulagan, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG)-Bacolod, said the items were received by a forwarding logistics company for delivery to a consignee identified only as alias “Choey.”
The consignee initially agreed to claim the shipment but stopped communicating with the logistics company following a CIDG entrapment operation on August 5.
The August 5 operation led to the arrest of an elderly Chinese national and a Filipina reseller and the confiscation of P470,000 worth of the same counterfeit products in Barangay Mansilingan here.
Verification later confirmed that the surrendered products were counterfeit, reportedly in coordination with a representative of the legitimate manufacturing company.
Authorities said this violates Republic Act No. 8293, or the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines, as amended.
Dulagan said further investigation is underway to determine the true identity of the consignee and file the appropriate charges.
The products were reportedly shipped from Manila and are believed to have come from a single supplier.
Dulagan said the supplier, believed to be Chinese, could also be behind the distribution of similar counterfeit products outside Bacolod City, including those recently confiscated in a market in La Castellana, Negros Occidental.
A criminal complaint has already been filed against the two suspects arrested during the August 5 operation, while monitoring of the illegal distribution continues.